Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday launched a blistering attack on Raghav Chadha and six other members of Parliament who resigned from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann addressing a press conference in Chandigarh on Friday. (PTI)
Addressing a press conference in Chandigarh, Mann termed the defectors “traitors of Punjab” and asserted that their departure would have no impact on the party’s strength or its commitment to the people. Targeting the BJP, he said: “When they did not find anything against Bhagwant Mann, they tried to break the AAP.”
Earlier, addressing a joint press conference in Delhi, AAP Rajya Sabha members Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal said they were joining the BJP. Chadha said nearly two-thirds of AAP’s Rajya Sabha members had quit the party to join the BJP as a separate faction. They are Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Vikramjit Singh Sahney and Swati Maliwal.
The chief minister, who landed in a political crisis after returning from a week-long visit to the Netherlands and Finland to attract investment for the state, said the outgoing Rajya Sabha members were creations of the AAP rather than leaders in their own right. “The party is bigger than any individual. These 6-7 people who have left do not comprise Punjab. They were not mass leaders. Let me be clear—none of them is capable of becoming even a village sarpanch on their own merit,” Mann said.
On public sentiment, he said: “Punjab will not spare these traitors. They have sold the mandate of the people for personal gain.”
Reinforcing the party’s central leadership, Mann said, “The entire state of Punjab stands united with (AAP national convener) Arvind Kejriwal. We are a party of revolutionaries, and we do not bow down to pressure tactics.”
Oppn mocks AAP crisis
The defections handed ammunition to the opposition, with leaders from the Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) mocking the AAP’s internal stability.
Leader of opposition and Congress MLA Partap Singh Bajwa described the development as the “beginning of the end” for the AAP in Punjab. “Bhagwant Mann’s frustration is evident. If these leaders weren’t mass leaders, why did the AAP send them to the Rajya Sabha in the first place? This is a total collapse of command.”
Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring took a swipe at the “Delhi model” of governance, saying that the AAP’s foundation was built on “sand and PR stunts.” He said that the desertion of a high-profile face like Raghav Chadha proves that even the inner circle has lost faith in Kejriwal’s vision.
Shiromani Akali Dal spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema termed the AAP defections as a betrayal of Punjab’s mandate by both the AAP and those jumping ship to the BJP. “The AAP has turned Punjab into a political playground. While the CM calls them traitors today, he must answer why his party outsourced Punjab’s representation to people who had no roots in our soil,” Cheema said.
